minister and israeli representatives are trying to come to a resolution along with egyptian negotiators in cairo. hamas is saying that israel can stop the fighting simply by agreeing to hamas' demands. they're claiming israel is begging for a truce. a claim that israel vehemently denies. in other lighter news this morning, let's turn back to u.s. political news where representative alan west is still buried in denial. he won his bid for a recount of early ballots in st. lucie county but he is still losing when it comes to keeping his congressional seat in florida's district 18. in fact, democratic patrick murphy picked up some 300 more votes over the weekend bringing his total to about 2,000. west is still refusing to concede the election saying that he plans to review the result and additional data in order to decide how to move forward. murphy has claimed victory and it is very clear that west is probably all done. we're back with more steph after the break. these talking points, that the right have, about the "heavy hand of government" ... i want to have that conversation. let's talk about it